Amusan: North-West University Will Be Represented at Drum Festival in Canada

As the planning and the preparation for the maiden edition of the epoch-making Drum Festival gather gather momentum, one of the prestigious Universities in South Africa, North West University, has shown its full support to grace the festival, slated to hold at Fuzion Banquet Hall in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada on Friday, July 28th, 2023. This will be actualised by the interest shown by one of the University Don’s, Professor Lere Amusan, PhD.

This was made known by the Chair, Department of Political Studies and International Relations, School of Government Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Prof. Lere Amusan. Prof. Lere Amusan will present a paper on the topic; ”Talking Drums as an Engine of Food Sovereignty in Yoruba Communities of South-Western Nigeria”

According to Prof Amusan, while acknowledging the receipt and acceptance of the invitation to the festival by the Publisher of The Drum Online Media Inc and the Convener of The Drum Festival (Ayan-Agalu Festival), Prince Segun Akanni. He writes:  This is to acknowledge your invitation to The Drum Festival (Ayan-Agalu Festival) that is coming up in July 2023 in Canada. With pleasure, I will be coming to represent my University, North-West University at the festival not as a spectator, but as one of the paper presenters. I also thank you for the role of guest speaker that you gave me.

This role will be judiciously played to the satisfaction of the mission and vision of your conference. As a staff, Professor of International Relations, and Chair of the Department of Political Studies and International Relations, North West University, South Africa, I will come to present a paper: Talking Drums as an Engine of Food Sovereignty in Yoruba Communities of South-Western Nigeria.

This eventful program is going to promote development and understanding among the black race in general and Yorubas in specific. Drum, as I understand it, is an engine of development and promotion of understanding.

With this, drum-talking among Yorubas in Nigeria, Togo, Benin Republic, Brazil, and many other countries that experienced slave trading, though to the disadvantage of the Yorubas, the culture of drum-talking is still an agent of cultural preservation and a means of preserving food sovereignty indirectly.

Despite myriad of challenges regarding food sovereignty, the Yorubas in the diaspora have not forgotten the roles that talking drums can play in their ways of life, in their religion, in their occupation, and in other social activities.

The paper I am to present will narrow its focus on food security and talking drums in the Yoruba land as the title alluded to. Different types of drums will receive academic interrogation and link the same with the reality on the ground.

Some selected cities, towns, and villages will receive clinical operations. The benefit of this presentation to the state of South Africa is to expose Yoruba culture to the people of the country through the publication of the paper in an accredited academic journal article, which is going to go global in the form of reading coverage.

I therefore, call on the organiser of this eventful event to make it a yearly event so that more understanding of drum types and how to make use of them at different times and occasions will be known in every nook and cranny of the globe.

In conclusion, I thank your establishment to count me worthy as one of those that will make a presentation during the event. Prof. Amusan stated. The festival has as its theme: ‘Rejigging Yoruba Cultural Heritage as Catalyst for National Unity and International Unity,  Progress and Development – The Ayangalu Example’.